Simple question?

Quote: Dalex64

Does one ever go to confessional without sins to confess?

Without serious sins, yes.

Quote: FrGamble

You think you are being mean and vindictive .

And you think you're being condescending and
superior. There is no understanding a god that
doesn't exist, he's literally anything you project
him to be. The point of myths is that they teach
you certain lessons. If you take the myth to be
real, as you do, then you miss the point entirely
and get bogged down in fanciful minutia that
takes over your life. Stop it!

Quote: FrGamble

Without serious sins, yes.

Thanks for the clarification. I found that one is only required to go to confession if one has committed mortal sins. If one has not sinned or has only committed venal sins, one does not have to go to confession.

I am trying to understand the difference in conditions that lead to the saints in heaven being unable to sin, and wondering if those conditions exist on earth for people who are still alive.

Quote: Dalex64

I am trying to understand the difference in conditions that lead to the saints in heaven being unable to sin, and wondering if those conditions exist on earth for people who are still alive.

Yes, people who are alive can live in conditions where they are so attune to the Will of God that their desires become synonymous with the Lord's. This is how Mary the Mother of God lived. She did not sin not because she was physically or morally unable to sin but because the thought of disobeying God would never enter into her mind so connected to God was she.

Quote: FrGamble

Yes, people who are alive can live in conditions where they are so attune to the Will of God that their desires become synonymous with the Lord's.

Just like the ending of 1984: Winston loved Big Brother.

That's when he's incapable of having a disloyal thought.

Quote: FrGamble

This is how Mary the Mother of God lived. She did not sin .

She didn't sin because sin is a fairy
tail. Nobody sins, there is no god to
sin against. Sin is an invention to
give priests and the Church power
over others. And they sure used it,
didn't they.

Quote: FrGamble

Yes, people who are alive can live in conditions where they are so attune to the Will of God that their desires become synonymous with the Lord's. This is how Mary the Mother of God lived. She did not sin not because she was physically or morally unable to sin but because the thought of disobeying God would never enter into her mind so connected to God was she.

These seem like difficult conditions to achieve, especially considering that Saint John Paul II regularly attended confessional, and may have been guilty of emotional adultry.

Given that this pope was later named a saint, and no one alive is named a saint, at what point in their life or death do they become incapable of sin, and immune from temptation?

I'll allow the differentiation between someone who is incapable of sin and someone who is a saint. People don't necessarily have to be saints to be incapable of sin.

The question remains, though, before John Paul II was named a saint and was then by definition incapable of sin, when did this happen and under what conditions?

Quote: Dalex64

These seem like difficult conditions to achieve, especially considering that Saint John Paul II regularly attended confessional, and may have been guilty of emotional adultry.

Given that this pope was later named a saint, and no one alive is named a saint, at what point in their life or death do they become incapable of sin, and immune from temptation?

It is indeed both difficult and easy at the same time. I like to think of it like going to the gym. I have never regretted going when I have found the will to do it and I always felt better afterwards. Being a saint and doing God's will is often hard to do at the onset and takes great strength and will power however at least in the beginning the experience of being connected with God and serving people fills us with happiness. The stronger we become the easier it is to achieve great communion with God and eliminate sin in our lives. Look at Mother Teresa for example. Imagine the strength it must have taken to get up every morning at the crack of dawn and walk through the sewers and alleyways to pick up the poorest of the poor and sickest of the sick to bring them back to a home, feed them, bathe them, take care of their open sores, and love them. This is not easy work but she saw Christ suffering in these people and wanted to help alleviate their suffering any way she could. What is even more amazing about her is that it turns out that a large chunk of her ministry she was undergoing what we sometimes call a "dark night of the soul". This means that the usual joy and feelings of closeness to God are withheld from someone so that they may continue to do good and live out their faith without any type of response from our heavenly Father. This perfect type of altruism is quite heroic and saintly.

Anyway, where were we. Oh yes, both JPII and MT did go to confess regularly and neither of them were sinless, of course. When you die you receive your judgment at that moment so at that point your decisions you made in life are final and you are either sent to hell or on your way to the joys of Heaven. So the key is really living a good life. After death there is purgatory where the attachments to sin that still cling to us are removed and we enter into Heaven incapable of sin because our will and God's is perfectly attuned.

Quote: FrGamble

you are either sent to hell or on your way to the joys of Heaven. So the key is really living a good life. After death there is purgatory

Why isn't ANY of this mentioned in the OT?

"In biblical chronologies spanning thousands of years, the God of the Bible and his Hebrew prophets never mentioned any possibility of punishment after death. Nothing like "hell" was even remotely suggested to Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Job, Moses, David, Solomon, Daniel, et al."

Hell was a pagan concept, stolen by the
early Christians and added to the books
of 'scripture' that were floating around.
The current hell is an invention of the
Church meant to control the ignorant
masses. It's worked very well indeed.

Quote: Evenbob

Why isn't ANY of this mentioned in the OT?

It is. There are many places where the everlasting day of God's wrath will come, referring to judgment and hell. The place called Sheol in the Old Testament is not Hell, but rather an abode of the dead where the just and unjust went. Later on in Judaism teachings developed that separated places in Sheol between these two groups. You have to remember also that before the coming of Christ all were guilty of breaking the law and the covenant of God so there was not the hope of Heaven that could only be opened by the Messiah and God's Mercy.

A quote you should remember that would help you with these questions is that, "The New is hidden in the Old and the Old is fulfilled in the New."